Billy Kelly (b. 1931)

Track 1: Described how three generations of his family were blacksmiths; his grandfather worked as a farrier for the British Army in the Curragh camp in Kildare. Track 2: Starting work with his father in the forge in Tullamore in 1945, and living in Parnell Street. Track 3: The nature of the work of a blacksmith. Recalled how he and his father joined the Irish National Foresters Benefit Society, with added comments from his friend and neighbour, Donney Geoghegan, who remembered the forge as a boy. Track 4: Demonstrated the blacksmith’s anvil used by himself, his father and his grandfather. Track 5: The traditional tools used in the forge and recalled the journeymen blacksmiths who came to work for his father in the forge. Track 6: Described a typical day in the forge. Track 7: Clear recollection of the day his father passed on the business to him. Track 8: His profession as a farrier, and travelling out to stables. Track 9: Memories of the occupational hazards of life in the forge, including the tendency of customers to smoke clay pipes and dispose of them on the forge floor! Track 10: The day he retired. Track 11: Memories of his dog, which he called his best friend, who was trained to collect the newspaper from the newsagent.